1. RELATED APPLICATIONS
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
2. FIELD OF INVENTION
My invention relates generally to automatic feeding devices for smaller animals and more particularly to such a device that disburses predetermined quantities of food at predetermined time intervals from plural storage reservoirs.
3. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
The feeding of smaller animals and fish without constant attention and in the absence of a human has long presented a problem and many various devices to resolve this problem have heretofore become known. The instant invention adds a new and novel member to this class of device.
In automatic animal feeding devices a reservoir or supply of food must be maintained in some fashion, and these devices may be divided into two classes based upon the food storage method, the first class embodying feeders having a single food reservoir from which measured quantities of food are periodically removed and the second class embodying devices with plural reservoirs, generally one for each feeding period. The instant device is of the latter type which may be readily distinguished from the former in that various predetermined quantities and types of food may be disbursed by the plural reservoir type device whereas the single reservoir device generally may disburse only one type of food in one predetermined quantity. This functional difference is variously but necessarily reflected in the structures giving rise to the function.
The instant feeder positions plural food reservoirs in a circular pattern and moves them in ordered sequence past a disbursement station to provide food disbursement at a single point. The food reservoirs are moved in a time related rotary motion past a disbursement station to provide food disbursement at predetermined time periods. This structure and motion allows inter-position of a time adjustment element between the several food reservoirs and an ultimate disbursing station to regulate absolute timing of the disbursement within a period, ranging continuously over an interval substantially the same as the disbursement period between successive food reservoirs. The prior art devices have generally not provided such an absolute timing adjustment at all and in the few instances where it has been provided this function has been accomplished by complex and costly mechanism.
For an automatic animal feeder to be of any utility it must operate without human attendants and it must have extreme reliability since if it does not properly operate it may cause the death of the animals that it is feeding. The instant invention provides reliability by reason of its simple mechanical structure providing cylindrical food reservoirs that deposit their contents at the disbursement station by action of gravity operated valves. The timed motion of the device is accomplished by mechanical linkage to an ordinary clock mechanism of commerce. The overall reliability is about as great as may be accomplished with any mechanical structure having parts moving relative to each other.
My invention differs from the prior art not in any one of these structures or functions per se but rather in the synergesic combination of all of them in the particular device specified and claimed.